


Caught Between a Strong Mind and a Fragile Heart

by the_Pop_Culturist



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Pure Spitfire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_Pop_Culturist/pseuds/the_Pop_Culturist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes doing the math is not enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught Between a Strong Mind and a Fragile Heart

Caught Between a Strong Mind and a Fragile Heart

 

 

Wally West sat at the island of his cramped apartment kitchen, scooping out the last remnants of the suprise Baskin Robbins ice cream cake his mother had left in his freezer. Later that evening the entire clan; West's, Allen's and Garrick's, would all meet at Wally's favorite Japanese steak house and celebrate properly, but until then the frozen desert was just what the doctor ordered, the least she could do for the latest beneficiary of the coveted Mercury Labs research grant, the endowment he'd been working on for over a year.

The speedster had been precise to the decimal point in his calculations, his theories were sound and provable, and its applications were limitless. He'd nailed it and he knew it. It was only a matter of the board of directors dotting a few _I's_  and crossing a few _T's,_ and he'd be on his way to becoming one of the youngest published research scientists in the company's storied history. It was to be the culmination of years of hard work, justifying all the potential his professors had seen in the young prodigy. It had all finally come to fruition. This was to be his moment.

And just like the first complex experiment he'd conducted in his basement In Keystone, the one that had changed his life forever, this too had blown up in his face with Hindenburg like proportions

To say his presentation to the board had not gone well would be a gross understatement.

\---

_He cleared his voice nervously, standing front and center in the in the stuffy conference room as he began his presentation. When after several failed attempts to download the program from the server, he began to panic, understanding how it must have felt to the sailor freezing his ass off in the crow's nest of the Titanic as he watched helplessly at the approaching iceberg._

_He quickly turned off the monitor, wiping his brow and trying to stifle the panic in his chest. When he began organizing his original outline, his uncle had suggested starting his presentation with a physics joke; something amusing to break the proverbial ice._

_"Scientists love physics jokes." Barry tried to convince him, but with all due respect to his mentor, the young speedster had no intention of beginning the most important presentation he'd likely ever give with some kind of corny pun, He was a physicist, a real one now, a graduate with honors, the youngest PHD in the history of the Stanford science program, not the science geek he was forced to play when his knowledge and proficiency were the only things available to a young team of proteges. He wasn't an amateur anymore and he had every intention of proving it. That was until everything turned to shit._

_"So...Two atoms were walking across the road when one of them said to the other, "Hey! I think I lost an electron."_

_"Really!" the other replied, "Are you sure?"_

_"Yes, I 'm absolutely positive."_

_The speedster grinned nervously as the silent room furrowed its collective brow. Wally cursed himself for listening to advice from the guy who bored the crap out of his Rouges to the point they'd literally surrender to police just to get away from his mentor's tedious anecdotes and lectures._

_Wally looked down at his index cards, his emergency backups in the minuscule chance the power point failed for some reason, He quickly flipped past the Webster's dictionary definition of physics, instead seeking out the ones explaining his proposal and outlining his goals. Two sweaty palms later and the remaining cards slipped through his fingers and spilled out across the grey laminate floor. He looked down at his feet, his entire presentation spread across the ground and now out of order._

_-Where was a cataclysmic alien invasion when you needed one?-_

_"Anyway...what I'm proposing is piggybacking on a discovery made in 2004 by Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester who was researching the alignment of carbon atoms on simple items such as plain old pencil lead. And after reading and following up on some of his research, I think his early discoveries could change the future of the electronics industry. In a controlled setting I made a pencil scrawl on a sheet of paper, and then used a length of Sellotape to pull off its graphite deposits. What I noticed was they came off as sheets of carbon atoms linked together in a hexagonal array, almost like microscopic chicken wire. Tests have shown that these "graphene" sheets have extraordinary properties. Graphene is ten times stronger than steel. Where copper wire and semiconductors lose a lot of electrical energy as heat, resulting in the average computer chip wasting seventy-five per cent of its power, graphene conducts electricity with little loss of energy. So what I'm asking for is a small grant to purchase the equipment necessary to properly study this hypothesis as well as mass produce it on a small scale to see how manufacturing costs stack up to potential energy saving."_

_"How much are we talking about?" the chairperson of the board Dr. McGee asked._

_"Uh," he swallowed hard, "roughly… five to ten million," he winced hoping that the possible applications had dazzled the collective board members so much they'd barely payed attention to the potential cost. "That's um…conservatively," he added, clearing his throat again._

_Deafening silence filled the room. Even the crickets were too uncomfortable to make a sound._

_"Dr. West, we're a small lab. What you're talking about is frankly financially irresponsible for a company with our budget. I don't think even an organization such as Star Labs would be willing to spend that kind of money to study a writing utensil. I can practically hear Harrison Wells laughing right now at such a proposal. I appreciate your enthusiasm but we're going to have to say no. We're a business Wally. We have to answer to our shareholders. Maybe next time you ask for another meeting, you can have something a little more substantive then the study of a number two pencil._

_\---_

Wally stared longingly at the remaining "i-o-n-s", of the original frosted "congratulations" salutation, dipping his spoon deeper into the white cake center before placing it into his mouth. A small dab of ice cream, dripped on to his tie as he sighed, wishing he'd bothered to change as soon as he got home instead of being tempted by the mistress that is an ice cream cake. He dug his spoon around the bottom of the box, collecting the last remnants, trying to put the previous twenty-four hours behind him when a voice spoke up from behind.

"You're unbelievable," Dick Grayson scolded from the shadows.

Wally no longer jumped when Nightwing pulled the ninja thing, accepting long ago that wherever he went in life, his best friend would always be standing in a darkened corner somewhere, ready and raring to scare the shit out of him whenever the mood struck. Wally shook his head in weariness; he wished Dick would find another hobby.

"What the cake? pffft...I'll burn this off in a hour."

"Not the cake dumbass, I mean Artemis. She's still missing."

Wally sighed, rolling his eyes in irritation. "She not missing," he groaned, "she's doing this on purpose."

"I don't think so, not this time."

"Well you're the detective, you find her."

"What do you think I've been trying to do? All my leads have gone cold."

The speedster growled. He was already in a foul mood, and somehow without her even being present, his ex-girlfriend was still making his life miserable.

"Look, that's what she does." he groaned. "She does shit like this just to get under everyone's skin, causes major red alerts and then walks in as if nothing's wrong, laughing her ass of at everyone for overreacting. She'll turn up, like a bad damn penny, but if you're so worried why don't you ask Roy where she is, I'm sure he knows."

"Do you really think I'd be standing here watching you practically making out with that cake if he knew? He doesn't, no one does. I've asked everyone, Zatanna, M'gann, Cassie, Raquel, Barbara, no one's seen her. I even got a message out to Jade."

"What did she say?" Wally chuckled bitterly.

"Well...fuck off and mind my own business."

"Pretty good advice actually'" the speedster smirked. "Look she'll come up for air when she wants too."

"Wally I've got half the team out searching for her, I'm even considering calling Ollie and Dinah. I can't believe you're not even worried about this. You act like you don't even care."

"Care? Sure I care, just like I cared when she screwed one of my best friends. Sorry one of my _ex_ -best friends."

Dick rolled his eyes. "Dude you'd been broken up for six months, and if memory serves, you're the one who did the breaking."

"Sooooo not the point?" he countered. "Roy broke the bro code and you know it. That was just low down, even for him. I hope when Cheshire finds out she tears his balls off and hangs them on her Christmas tree."

"KF..."

"I mean come on he's like ten years older than her."

"Five," Dick corrected

"They're nothing alike."

"They're both archers, martial arts experts..."

"They have nothing in common."

"Troubled pasts, daddy issues..."

"He's like her older brother."

"They're not even remotely related."

"She can't stand him!"

"Well evidently she can a little," Dick chuckled.

Wally's brow furrowed, shooting his best brined a glaring frown. "Dude…not helping. Whose side are you on anyway?"

"I'm not on anyone's side. That's the perks of being me. Look I don't want to get into the whole Red Arrow thing again. Fine she's your ex, I get that and you're pissed off at her, but she's still one of your teammates and she's in trouble."

"Ex-teammates," Wally grumbled

"Whatever, you going to help me or not?"

Wally glowered into the empty box, strongly considering speeding off to closest B&R and ordering three more. After a day like today he really just needed to lay low and drown his sorrows, and since alcohol didn't have much effect on him, sweets would have to be his poison of choice.

Unfortunately Dick was right, and as pissed as he was that she'd pulled this shit again, he didn't want to see her hurt. Scared shitless maybe, possibly a little bruised and banged up, but knowing his ex-girlfriend he was fairly sure she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"Fine," he moaned, "what do you want me to do?"

xxx

Seventy-two hours later the speedster leaned his aching head against the dank cave wall, knees pulled to his chest, cursing at himself. He sat flexing his fists back and forth as sensation finally returned to his extremities. She'd done it to him again.

The speedster had triangulated the last known pings from her phone from the surrounding cell towers against a geological survey of the area that Dick had provided, narrowing her last known coordinates into a roughly fifty square mile radius, a very manageable distance for one of the fastest men alive to cover.

Once he'd triple checked his math, he reached for his com unit, still a little rusty on the latest Justice League protocols, hoping for a Wayne Tech satellite in orbit overhead to do an infrared scan, when he saw movement in the valley below.

Seconds later he was at the bottom of the crevice, knocking a camouflaged gun toting guard senseless. He reached down to the motionless body, taking an arm and checking for a pulse, when, he saw a tattoo creeping out from under the men's sleeve. When the speedster rolled up material he immediately recognized the insignia.

Hive.

There were still several branches of this organization scattered across the globe, and though they weren't considered the threat they once were, the idea of his ex- being captured and tortured by these thugs made him worried, very worried.

The speedster was about to call for back up when he felt the sting of a projectile lodge into his lower back. Seconds later 50,000 bolts raced through his body, sending him crashing down face first in the lush valley grass.

His head ached as he looked over at his fellow cellmate sitting across from him, knees bent to her chest leaning against the cold iron bars of their cell, shooting him an equally indignant look to match his own

"I guess they took your bow and quiver huh?" he frowned to his fellow captive.

"Good guess dumbass," Artemis replied bitterly, rising to her feet, and examining the point where iron bars met the dank cave wall, looking for signs of weakness.

"Nice job," he frowned.

"Thanks, that was my master plan," she replied sardonically.

'Well congratulations, you really nailed it. What the hell is Hive even doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Well that's what I was trying to figure before some genius started a manhunt and blew my cover."

"We'll maybe if you could just pretend every now and then to be part of a team and share your plans with someone….anyone, you could have kept you cover intact. Maybe even have had some back-up on standby, instead of always going in solo and needing someone to pull your ass out of the fire…again!"

"This is a rescue? Oh my God you're kidding! Oh thank the Lord," she replied, her sarcasm literally dripping from her words. "And what an honor it is to have the former Kid Flash come stumbling into such an amazingly obvious trap. Thank you - thank you - thank you!"

"Your welcome." the speedster grumbled, walking to the opposite side of the cell and feigning interest in a rock formation, anything not to look at her. "This is exactly how I wanted to spend my evening."

"Like you had anything better to do," she said snidely.

"I had tons of things."

"Right," she laughed tauntingly. "Like what?"

"Well for your information I was supposed to be on a date, and now thanks to you, you've ruined my night…again."

"It's not like I invited you here genius, and who in the hell are you on a date with?"

"It's a girl named, _none of your damn business,_ maybe you've heard of her."

"Oh very mature," she scolded. "Like I even care."

"The why did you ask?!" he yelled in frustration.

Off in the distance one of the guards patrolling the access tunnel yelled, "Will you two shut the hell up!"

"Fuck off!" the archer and speedster yelled in unison, staring back at each other, surprised at their synchronicity.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Wally finally asked. "Is there any chance your _boyfriend_ might have been able to track you?"

"Well for starters, he's not my boyfriend, and second maybe he's already on his way, but doesn't want to come stumbling blindly in and getting himself electrocuted like your dumbass did."

"Whatever." Wally grumbled, rephrasing the question. "Is there just any chance your current sexual partner might know that HIVE is operating in this area and that you might be investigating it?"

"It was one time!" she growled.

"Look I don't care."

"Well evidently ya do," she replied sarcastically.

"You can be such a bitch sometimes," the speedster snapped.

"Me? I'm the problem? Look you broke up with me. It had been months. You wouldn't return my calls, my emails, my texts; you even changed the locks on your apartment. How messed up is that? So one night were out, we're drunk, and I was angry!"

"So that's why you decided to fuck one of my best friends." he spit bitterly.

"Oh for God's sake, we didn't have sex, all I did was give him a blowj…."

"Stop!" Wally screamed covering he ears. "I don't want the details, Jesus what's wrong with you!"

He stormed away in the suddenly claustrophobic cell, trying to calculate the furthest point he could physically reach to get away from her. Moments later he turned and shot her angry growl. "Aw man, now I can see it in my mind. Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome," she grinned evilly. "Why do you even care?"

"I…DON'T!" he barked.

Wally walked away in disgust, turning to the iron bars and gripping them tightly. Suddenly his hands began to blur as the cold iron began to glow a warm orange, A few seconds later the speedster yanked his hands away, the heat beginning to melt the palms of his gloves.

"Didn't wear your reinforced ones did you?" she deadpanned.

"So I'm a little rusty, you happy?" he replied in annoyance. "It's not like I was expecting any of this, I thought it was going to be a simple reconnaissance mission. I should have known better. You could make making a peanut butter sandwich complicated."

With that phrase his stomach began to growl as if on cue. "Aw man, what I'd give for a couple of those right now," he sighed.

"Get over it Kid Mouth, and since now you know all the sordid details of my sex life, why don't you tell me about this date of yours, you know - get out a little of that pent up resentment and leave me drowning in jealously."

Wally palmed his eyes, continuing on through his hair in exasperation. "Oh my God this is not happening, it's like one of those dreams you go to school and you're in your underwear. Dear Lord could I please wake up now?"

"Spill it Baywatch,"

"Why are you so damn interested?"

"I'm not," she snapped back. "I'm just bored."

"You want to know that bad? Fine. It's a girl from the Central City News. Aunt Iris introduced us. Happy?"

"Pfft…like I care who you go out with."

"THEN WHY DID YOU ASK!" he bellowed, walking away, squeezing his head tightly to keep it from exploding. God she could be so infuriating. He blew out his breath and leaned back against the wall, sliding down into a sitting position.

They stayed silent for several minutes, with her staring out the bars looking for patrol patterns, while he stole quick glances of her. Even captured, disheveled, and purposely irritating, she still made his heart skip a beat. Wally hated that she still had that much power over him.

He knew when he broke it off, that she'd eventually find someone else, and it was going to hurt like hell. He'd tried to prepare himself for that day, but why in the world did it have to be Roy Harper. If Aladdin himself had suddenly appeared offering wishes, instead of escape he'd wish to exchange archers, so he could properly beat the shit out of him. He sat lost in his thoughts when the archer broke their silence.

"Why did you break up with me?"

"What?"

"You heard me. Why did you break up with me? It's a simple question."

"Are you kidding me?" Wally groaned. "We're sitting here captured, facing possible torture or certain death, and this is what you're worried about?"

"Who said worried? Just answer the damn question."

"Look I don't want to get into this now. It not the time."

"It's exactly the time," she corrected. "Like you said, for all we know they're going to come in here any minute and kill us both. It's exactly the time. I think I have a right to know."

"You're unbelievable," he hissed.

Artemis walked over, sitting and staring him down, daring him to put it off any longer. She may not have been a meta-human, but her eyes could put Wonder Woman's lasso to shame.

The speedster sighed in defeat. "I didn't want to hold you back any more." he mumbled.

"What did you say?" she asked irritably.

He tilted is head to the ground closing his eyes. "I said I didn't want to hold you back any more."

"Hold me back? Hold me back from what?" she demanded.

"Artemis I'm retired. I wanted out of the game. I've been doing the hero thing since I was thirteen. I wanted a life outside the mask, a normal life, but that's not you. You're a super hero. That's what you do, that's who you are, there's never going to be anything normal about it. I knew if I asked you to give it up you probably would, but you'd resent me for it and I wasn't willing to put you through that."

He stood and began pacing around the cage. "You and I both know how dangerous the life can be. You have to be focused on what you're doing and not worry about someone's fragile ego or feeling obligated to constantly check in when missions keep you gone for weeks. I can't be a distraction, I won't be. It'll get you killed. And as much as I hate to say it, you and Roy make sense, and I know he'll have your back."

"So there it is." Wally sighed, "I'm sorry, I really am, but you know deep down I'm right."

Artemis nodded, pursing her lips, silently contemplating his words. He could see it in her eyes; closure. He should have done it long time ago, she deserved it, but despite its inescapable logic, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. And as far as she and Roy were concerned, the speedster knew he got just what he deserved. Hopefully with it all out in open now, they could put it behind them and begin working on an escape plan.

Artemis rose to her feet, dusting off the mossy debris from her uniform when she finally turned to him.

"You're an idiot." she frowned.

"Excuse me?"

"That is one of the stupidest things I ever heard you say, and trust me I've heard some doozies. Did you ever once think that maybe you're the most important thing in the world to me? That maybe you're the reason I'd be extra cautious during missions to make sure I made it back to you. You didn't leave the game to have a normal life, you left because you're brilliant and it was finally time to see what Wally West could do, without Kid Flash constantly looking over his shoulder."

"Artemis…"

"Do you love me?"

"What?" he replied, thrown off guard by the abruptness of the question.

"It's a simple question. Do you love me?"

"Of course I do," he sighed.

"I don't know how you got it in your head that being a hero was all I was about, and just because you didn't want to be one anymore would change how I saw you, how I felt about you? Do you really think I'm that fucking shallow? Wally I don't care if you're a superhero, a scientist or a garbage man. I love you for you, not for what you do. Why couldn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want you to have to make that choice Artemis. I thought it was the right thing to do. I knew you were going to be pissed and hurt, but sometimes you do your best work when you're like that. Believe it or not I just wanted you to be happy."

"Dumping me on Valentine's Day made me happy?"

The speedster winced. "Ok so my timing was a little off."

"Off?. It wasn't off, It was selfish, and lowdown, and just plain shitty!"

"Don't even start with me Crock, you're the one who blew my one of my best friends," he snarled.

The archer frowned. "Don't be gross, this is Roy were talking about. Do you really think in my complete and utter despair I'd get together with Mr. God's Gift to Women? Besides he's dating Jade, I'd be breaking all kinds of sister codes."

"Exactly!" he threw his hands in the air in triumph, satisfied that someone else acknowledged the unwritten rules of a break up, just as her words struck.

"Wait..what?"

"I didn't do that you idiot," she scolded. "I just said it to piss you off. Roy thought you were being a complete prick and said he'd play along, so we just made it up and let it slip, I knew once Zatanna found out she'd spread it everywhere."

"You made all that shit up just to hurt my feelings? Are you serious? Well mission accomplished," he replied rancorously

"Oh don't try to pull the victim card with me West; at least I'm not dating again."

"It was one date, and it went terribly. Tonight was supposed to be a redo."

"Did you kiss her?"

"Artemis….."

"Did you?"

"It's none of your business," he frowned.

"I making it my business," she growled. "Did you or did you not kiss her?!"

"No!" he bellowed. "Ok?! I wanted to. I walked her to the door, she leaned in and I froze. I shook her hand and said I'd call her. It was awkward, and embarrassing and a total fail."

"Why didn't you?" the archer inquired.

"I don't know….."

"Wally?"

"Because she's not you. Ok? Happy?"

He looked over to see her smiling in satisfaction. "Yeah," she replied. "I am."

"I'm really sorry ok? but I did the math, my logic's sound. It was the right thing to do," he said sadly. "If you think this was easy you're dead wrong, it hurts like hell I promise you. I loved being a hero, God those were some of the best times of my life and I don't regret a minute of it, but Artemis I'm not that guy anymore and you deserve better."

The archer pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. "Will you stop thinking with your brain, and use your heart instead? I'm not a math problem," she paused, "We," pointing back and forth between them, "are not a formula…."

Wally raised his finger. "Technically…."

"Shut up," she dismissed sharply, continuing on. "We are an equation. We are a team. It only works if we're honest with each other. Wally I spent half my like keeping secrets, and I never realized how much it ate me up inside. You made me open up, you helped me realize my worth. You made me take a chance. Well guess what, I'm going to make you do the same thing right now. You want math, I'll give you math. I love you, you love me. We belong together. You don't even need a calculator to figure that out. Does it make sense to you now Einstein? or do I need to dumb it down a little?"

"No," he smiled; taking the first stress free breath he'd taken in months. "I can see it pretty clearly now."

She reached over, palming his cheeks and bringing his face to hers.

"Though I think I would have used the word chemistry instead of equation, it best describes the combination of…"

She shut him up with a kiss, a really good one, as good if not better than the thousands they'd shared before and hopefully would again. The boy in front of her was a total and complete dork, a brilliant man sometimes so blinded by science, that he could miss things, important things that stood right in front of him. But he also had the biggest heart, and despite his recent jackassery behavior, loved her more than she'd ever been loved before. Artemis liked that about him, and when he wasn't trying to break her heart for the sweetest of reasons, she loved him just as much. He was her hero, even if he didn't wear a mask anymore.Their lips broke apart, but their heads still rested against the other. "I wish I could have figured all this out before I was facing certain death."

"Please," she laughed, "these guys aren't going to do shit. Do you think I'd really get caught by these bush-league amateurs? I had to practically beg them to take me captive."

Wally face dropped. "You… got…captured, just so we could talk. Are freaking nuts?"

"Maybe a little," she grinned, pulling several picks and tensions from the soles of her boots, bending down and jiggling the tumblers of the cell door. Seconds later a barely audible click sounded, and the archer pushed the door open ever so slightly, turning back and beaming at the befuddled speedster.

Wally rolled his eyes. "I'm going to kill you now. It's going to be slow and painful, but I just thought you should know"

"Tell you what Baywatch, I've got a better idea. Let's go round up these clowns and call in the League, then you can take me back to Central City, change the locks back or give me a new key- your choice, bring back all my stuff from my mom's place, and you better be careful around her, she may try to stab you. After that you're taking me to dinner, drinks, and that new Star Wars movie. If you still feel like murdering me after that we can discuss it in the morning. Deal?"

"Deal," he answered with a smile, taking her into his arms and kissing her one final time before they sprang into action.

"Oh and when we get back to the city, I want to meet this girl."

"Nooo way," he chuckled.

"Why? I just want to size up the competition."

"What are you going to shoot her?" he laughed, until he saw the drop dead serious look on his ex-girlfriend, (now current girlfriend's) face.

"Maybe, I don't know yet," she shrugged.

"You know if you try, Kid Flash will have to stop you."

"I'm counting on it," she grinned.


End file.
